HOBOKEN – 198 Hoboken Charter School Students will return to their Washington Street campus on Wednesday a little over a year since an intense fire ripped through the building, forcing students to temporarily relocate to Jersey City and the school to invest in a massive renovation currently in its final stages.

Mayor Dawn Zimmer will join the school community for a ribbon cutting and tour of the remodeled facility, which now boasts 40 percent more space, including two additional floors and a landscaped roof deck. The school is now also more competitive technologically, due to a $425,000 donation from Hewlett-Packard that allowed the school to purchase new computers, printers, networking equipment and servers.

The massive redevelopment, which required continued waivers from the city to allow construction to proceed throughout the night time and on weekends, was funded mainly through donations. The students forced out by the fire, who range in age from Kindergarten to eighth grade, spent the remainder of the year and the beginning of this year at a building in the Jersey City Heights formerly used by the St. Ann’s School.

Keep an eye on this weekend’s Hoboken Reporter for a larger story on the school’s triumphant return to Hoboken. – Dean DeChiaro